Ratings and Reactions

[TheSufferingVilla]

**** delighted. We went out there after having our confidence smashed facing probably our closest league rivals who were desperate to get a win. The lads worked their socks off and fought for what was a very unlikely 3 points. Great spirit, fantastic way to bounce back.

[TRO]

as much as that game was a remarkable recover from last week if we keep playing like that we will either need twice the squad size or they will be dead by Xmas.

It was exciting to watch and both teams played their part in that, but

I hope the next manager instills a bit of ball retention in our play.

Ps... I thought we would lose today.

[RunRickyRun]

I'm sorry but for me that is one of my favourite wins of recent times. 6-0 loss, 3-2 loss, out of Europe, big crisis at the club. Performance was average, but we stood up and our defence was absolutely fantastic. Even Downing at the end was chasing all over the park. Reo-Coker I thought was exceptional and to be honest, I'm glad Ireland was out in the warm up because of the effect Coker had on the game.

Dunne Collins Young Warnock Friedel though, absolutely sublime.

Agree with this.

I thought the team were very well organised and disciplined which I felt was key to getting anything from the game.

Absolutely delighted with the three points. Credit to Kevin MacD for drilling the players.

[JulieB]

Can I just say it was just great to see KM take a still slightly injured Carew off the field and have the bottle NOT to bring Heskey on but to finally put Gabby upfront with Ash.

Gabby's not fit but in minutes he's played so far he looks the business, Ash & Gab could do a good job up front for us this season.

[villa4europe]

Ref was horrendous. Possibly the worst I've seen down Villa Park.

Amen to that brother!

So inconsistent and topped it off with several piss poor decisions, and 5 mins from out of nowhere, if everton had scored he'd have been lynched

Good performance, frustrating that we were a bit stand offish but on reflection thats probably what won us the game, their movement was brilliant but we stood firm, collins was awesome and friedels handling at the end was great

Big john was quiet but had a burst in the 2nd half, albrighton and young were tireless, petrov had his moments, nrc was better but i still dont see it and downing was poor imo but if ash plays middle you need him in there for the balance

Was funny to see us really get overrun in the middle but still limit them to probably 2 chances, whilst we missed 2 sitters (to be fair youngs was an amazing save) and scored a great goal

[Straygoat]

I predicted 1-0 in the match thread!

Excellent performance by the whole team, to be honest. Downing and Warnock could have done better, but still it was a great team effort.

Our defence was solid, the only thing I disliked was the lack of composure on the ball for the last 20 minutes. We kept hoofing it upfield when we should have put our foot on the ball and forced Everton to chase our passes.

Ash it my MOTM as he was chasing everything down and a lot of our best attacks were through him.

Friedel - 9

L Young - 9

Dunne - 8

Collins - 8

Warnock - 7

Albrighton - 8

Petrov - 8

NRC - 7

Downing - 7

Ash - 9

Carew - 8

Sub: Gabby - 8

I think someone has the rose tinted specs on there! Their midfield bossed the game, so to give ours two 8s and two 7s is a bit suspect. I'm not a big fan of Petrov but he did a decent job of keeping Cahill quiet today. Albrighton worked hard providing defensive cover, but an 8? Piennar had the better of things on that flank IMHO. I'd say, Fellaini and Piennar were the stand-out midfielders.

Carew an 8?!! Apart from the 5 mins before Gabby came on, he did absolutely nothing. Dunne was very suspect in the first as well.

Friedel, Collins, the two Youngs, Warnock and Petrov did well, the rest were mediocre or worse.

Until the midfield can keep hold of the ball we are going to struggle. Thank God Everton haven't got a decent strike force.

[The_Lions_Roar]

Glad to see Cahills diving got him nowhere today, and as for that screech freak going in with his studs up on Carew, he's lucky the ref was so shit!

Pride and passion got us through today, i thought Ash was immence and never seen him work so hard to the point he couldnt even stand up when the wistle went. Hearing Man City had lost and Blues threw away a 2 goal lead was the icing on the cake.

Finally, how **** horrible is that Everton away shirt?

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

Gabby has been injured all season (hamstring) which is why he has hardly played.

I do believe that and hope so but you never know, I really hope he does chose Agbonlahor as first choice striker if appointed. He has too. Surely.

[Straggler]

I am chuffed to bits with this win, but I don't really feel that we have too much to shout about here. Our defence won this today, and I mean the back 4 by this, not the covering infront. There was loads of hard work done my Petrov and Reo, however it was so badly misplaced that they might as well not have bothered. As a team we shut down everton really poorly, with single men chasing the ball around. There was no sense that we were closing the ball down as a team, which allowed Everton to pass the ball around us, and they weren't even passing the ball all that well on average.

I mean we had 33% possetion today, which is awful by any standards, it basically means that we had the ball for our own throw ins, goal kicks etc then propmptly gave it away. I don't care how hard the team works, if you give the ball away that much most teams will murder you. The bigger concern is that we did not look like a team that has the technique within the team to pass the ball. We have a team of technique have and have nots, but there are too many have nots to allow us to pass effectively. Reo is the classic example of this, I believe his reputation has improved by sitting on the bench, like many of the players that missed out on England selection. Today he worked ok to get the ball back, but it is all for nothing if when he gets the ball he gives it away, which happens more often than not. It means his own team mates loose faith in giving him the ball, which in turn gives them less options making them more likely to pick a harder pass and give the ball away. It also encourages the defence to lump the ball further up the pitch as they would rather defend a ball on the half way line than have Reo give it away 25 yards out from goal.

For me though this game nails it down that I don't want Kev as the full time manager. The team did not play as a team. The back 4 defended brilliantly as a unit, but this is a good well established unit. Everything infront of that defence was poorly organised, held together with the odd bit of effort and individual skill. If we continue on this path we will get murdered by much worse teams than Everton (as we were by Newcastle). I don't want to get too down on individual players as I want to see all the members of this squad given a chance under a manager who can set them up to play in a much more organised manner.

I may be wrong, but if anyone our there can tell me what the plan to beat Everton today was I will be all ears.

[claret75]

For MacDonald, the positives today were that he had the team fired up, the negatives were that we played far too deeply and we still get a little confused between defending well and defending a lot. Particularly in the first half, Downing and Albrighton spent a lot of time in the full back positions which encouraged their full backs forward and made it hard for us to break out.

Oh and in case I didn't mention is yet -shocking, shocking referee.

Agree with everthing OBE said. We played way too defensively and hardly got the wingers and Young forward at all. It's ok playing defensively and hitting them on the counter attack, but we didn't give Carew any support first half.

Played well for 15 minutes of the 2nd half, but ended up sitting too deep again towards the end. A Young looked threatening 2nd half when he was pushed on a bit. NRC is still terrible

Gritty 2nd half performance and great result given the circumstances.

[CBGB]

The schizophrenia continues!

One week it's all out attack and dodgy at the back. Today it's back to dogged defending and looking to get something from the counterattacks.

Really important win and a clean sheet. Friedel and the centre backs kept us in it, but everyone worked hard and played a part.

Have to say, though, it's a concern that Everton - a decent team, but hardly top 4 - dominated us for stretches and we were only just holding on.

[HappyCatMe]

I don't think it's fair to single anyone out for criticism or plaudits today. The result was ALL that mattered after the past week, and fair play to all concerned, they ground it out.

We're 4th and looking down at Man City, Spurs and Liverpool...To me, that's satisfying enough considering all we've been through.

Well done to all concerned, and people here, let's not analyse too much: ours was a team without confidence and belief before today. They did us proud, so let's just applaud them...

[claret75]

I have gone Ash MOTM, he was tireless. Collins close second, he was monumental today. What a win, can't believe we hung on. Great defending. Super goal too!

From where I was sitting, I couldn't see who was making all the blocks and winning the headers in the 2nd half, so I can't really comment on Collins, but I will say he's a much better player when he concentrates on defending and isn't trying to be Beckenbauer.

I give A Young MOTM for his 2nd half performance. His partly blocked chip 2nd half looked like it would've been close without the deflection, great effort.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

Glad to see Cahills diving got him nowhere today, and as for that screech freak going in with his studs up on Carew, he's lucky the ref was so shit!

Pride and passion got us through today, i thought Ash was immence and never seen him work so hard to the point he couldnt even stand up when the wistle went. Hearing Man City had lost and Blues threw away a 2 goal lead was the icing on the cake.

Finally, how **** horrible is that Everton away shirt?

They played in Blue today.... :?

[OK_Villan]

I didn't think the performance was too bad for the first 75 minutes. After that we couldn't keep the ball. We were much calmer in defence than in attack. NRC panicked and blew a goal that could have sealed it much earlier.

[The_Lions_Roar]

I may be wrong, but if anyone our there can tell me what the plan to beat Everton today was I will be all ears.

to score more goals than them

[Maradona10]

You know what it was all about the result, the boys were playing against 13 men out there today, they battled like lions for that win, the courage the desire, you also have to remember we played on Thursday evening too, looks like Ireland will be out for a while, as he was walking down he was in agony! Unlucky Artetas girl, you have some great boys but Feillani is one of the dirtiest players in this league and god only knows why he wasn't booked!

[Straggler]

I may be wrong, but if anyone our there can tell me what the plan to beat Everton today was I will be all ears.

to score more goals than them

Very good

Sounds like we have been going to Kevin Keegan for advice then

[The_Lions_Roar]

I may be wrong, but if anyone our there can tell me what the plan to beat Everton today was I will be all ears.

to score more goals than them

Very good

Sounds like we have been going to Kevin Keegan for advice then

To be fair, today was about getting a result, it wasn;t pretty but it did the job, lets get a manager in now and work on our tactics over the next 2 weeks.

[The_Lions_Roar]

Also how shit is Beckford, i guarantee he won't score more than 5 goals this season in the prem.